movies_creation

American Movie Archives (美國電影檔案)

Title
New Neighbor
Year
1953
Abstract
Building a steel mill from scratch and a city for its workers (Levittown, Pa.).
Notes
Produced: Handy (Jam) Organization
Sponsor: U.S. Steel Co.
Run Time: 24:49
Audio/Visual: Sd, B&W
Keyword
Metals: Steel: Steel Industry;Suburbia;Infrastructure: Construction;Suburbia;Infrastructure: Construction
Theme
Glory days long gone
Review
This could have used some editing! It's too long. The speech at the opening of the mill is particularly irritating. There's a notable quote from the very end, where we're told that "This is a plant that will go on for 50 or perhaps 100 years to come, pouring steel into the ribs of our nation, and wealth into its economic veins" Sorry, Mr. Fairless, it didn't happen like that. Here's part of a (Philadelphia?) Inquirer article from August 15, 2001: Once-booming steel plant is reduced to 100 workers The Fairless Works steel factory that helped give birth to Levittown, Pa., and raised thousands of Bucks County families into a middle-class lifestyle is all but closing its doors. USX Corp ... said yesterday that it would permanently lay off 600 of the last 700 workers at the plant by November. ... Fairless Works opened in the early 1950s in Falls Township, and employed 8,000 people in its heyday in the mid-1970s. To many, it symbolized the Philadelphia region's economic might after World War II. But the factory apparently will not survive in any substantial fashion the nation's unflinching economic slowdown and the flood of low-cost steel imports from the former Soviet Union and Asia.
(Reviewer: Mr. Snout)
Location
A/V room, 2/F